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2026 Keynote Speaker and Panelists
E. Eric Tokat is Co-President of Investment Banking at Centerview Partners, a leading independent investment bank with offices in New York, San Francisco, Menlo Park, London and Paris.
Mr. Tokat has been critical in helping to build Centerview into a preeminent advisory firm and positioning it for continued success. As Co-President of Investment Banking, he works with fellow members of Centerview’s senior management in overseeing and implementing the firm’s strategy and continuing to develop its industry-leading client franchises.
Mr. Tokat is a founder of Centerview’s Healthcare practice and has played an instrumental role in establishing the practice as the market leader in strategic advisory. Mr. Tokat has advised on more than 100 transactions over his career exceeding $500 billion in total deal value, including many of the most important, industry-defining life sciences transactions of the past decade. He is a frequent speaker on Healthcare industry trends and has been quoted in leading publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg News and STAT News.
Mr. Tokat has been involved in numerous educational and charitable causes throughout his career and currently serves on a number of not-for-profit boards, including as: a trustee at the Brookings Institution, a member of the Board of Advisors at the IRC (International Rescue Committee), a member of the Board of Advisors at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as a member of the Board of Advisors of Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Tokat received his BA from Bogazici University and MIA from Columbia University.
Adam Kaye is a Senior Managing Director and Partner, Structured Capital at RA Capital Management. His primary responsibility is to build out credit and structured capital solutions across the RA Capital platform with a focus on commercial stage healthcare and life sciences companies. Adam has spent the last 20 years working across credit and equity investing and was previously a Managing Director at two large credit focused platforms, Sixth Street Partners and Hayfin Capital Management. Prior to Hayfin, he was at New Health Capital Partners, a life sciences and health care special situations fund. Adam's investing career began at New Leaf Venture Partners, a private venture fund focused on biotech, medical devices and diagnostics companies across venture and public equity opportunities. Prior to New Leaf he was a healthcare investment banker at ThinkEquity Partners, and BMO Capital Markets. He holds a MS in Biology from New York University and BBA in Finance and Consulting from Emory University's Goizueta Business School.
Karim Maasarani is a General Partner at Eckuity Capital, where he focuses on identifying and scaling disruptive innovations across medical technology, digital health, and biotechnology. He brings more than 15 years of experience spanning life sciences investing, corporate strategy, and healthcare operations, combining technical expertise with a disciplined investment approach that drives strategic and commercial value across the portfolio.
Before joining Eckuity, Karim was a Vice President at Amzak Health, where he led growth-stage investments in medtech and biotech, with a focus on AI-enabled platforms and next-generation therapeutic technologies. His portfolio included companies such as Histosonics, Koko Medical, Thryv Therapeutics, and Monte Rosa Therapeutics, among others. He also served as Board Member and Interim CEO of Si Paradigm, a specialty diagnostics company where he led operational transformation and profitability initiatives. Earlier in his career, Karim held senior roles within Merck’s Strategy & Business Development group, where he led investments and partnerships in oncology and AI- driven diagnostics, contributing to major strategic transactions and collaborations with Illumina, Natera, PathAI, Owkin, and QureAI. He began his career in R&D and technical operations at Dentsply Sirona and Becton Dickinson, gaining first-hand experience in product development and commercialization.
Karim holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MBA with Honors from Columbia Business School. His cross-functional background in investment, corporate strategy, and product development provides a distinctive perspective on building and scaling high-growth healthcare businesses.
Shaunak Parikh is a Partner at Invidia with nearly 20 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare and finance. His focus has been on identifying, evaluating, and executing investments across pharma and pharma services, medical devices, diagnostics, and technology-enabled services. He brings extensive board experience, working closely with management teams to drive growth and value creation.
Prior to Invidia, Mr. Parikh was an investor at EW Healthcare Partners in New York and at a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on healthcare. He began his career in the investment banking group at Citi, advising on M&A transactions in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors.
Mr. Parikh earned his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors from UCLA with dual degrees in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and Economics.
Jon has approximately 32 years of life science industry operational and advisory experience, including fourteen years as Principal and Founder of Stonepine. Previously, Mr. Plexico was Managing Director at Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., where he ran healthcare corporate finance focusing on private investments in public equity (PIPEs), secondary offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that, Mr. Plexico was co-founding partner of Venture Ready Partners, a life science advisor providing capital raising services to private biotechnology companies. Previously, Mr. Plexico was employee #5 at Chemdex, an electronic life-science commerce company that grew to 500 employees and completed an initial public offering during his tenure. He began his career at Quidel Corporation, where he became National Sales Manager for the Autoimmune Division. He has served on the Boards of Directors of Zila, Inc., Immunetech, Inc., and Viveve Medical, Inc. Mr. Plexico is a graduate of Colgate University.
Roberto Bellini is a Managing Partner at BSQUARED CAPITAL, a family office biotech fund, that he co-founded in 2023. He also serves as Director on the Board of Inhibikase Therapeutics [NASDAQ:IKT] and Congruence Therapeutics.
He served as President and CEO of BELLUS Health between January 2010 and July 2023. Under his leadership, BELLUS Health developed a P2X3 antagonist, camlipixant, for chronic cough from preclinical to Phase 3 and was acquired by GSK plc for US$2.0B in 2023.
Mr. Bellini holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from McGill University.
Kasia is a healthcare investor at Marshall Wace, where she focuses on late-stage private and public investment opportunities. Her work centers on evaluating clinical and regulatory catalysts alongside commercial viability to uncover underappreciated opportunities in the market. Prior to Marshall Wace, Kasia was an oncology investor at Avoro Capital, and before that she completed her PhD in the lab of Sasha Rudensky at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Outside of work, she enjoys skiing and art.
Isai Peimer is a seasoned biotech investor and Portfolio Manager at Balyasny Asset Management, specializing in private and public therapeutic investments.
Since 2008, he has focused on partnering with management teams to advance the development of breakthrough therapies.
Previously, Isai was a biotech investor at a multi-strategy hedge fund and served as Managing Director at a corporate venture fund. He has held board positions at multiple biotech companies, providing strategic guidance through critical development and M&A milestones. Isai’s career began in the pharmaceutical industry and included roles in investment banking, equity research, and management consulting.
He holds a B.S. in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from Emory University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Brad Sitko has been XOMA Royalty's Chief Investment Officer since January 2023. Brad has been involved with 70+ diverse transactions including royalty monetization, structured finance, buy and sell-side M&A, spinouts, divestitures, in- and out-licensing, PIPEs, private placements, and follow-ons with over $9B of M&A, licensing volume and capital raised in healthcare, biotech and digital health sectors. Transaction roles include investor, operating company executive, financial advisor and strategy consultant.
Prior to XOMA Royalty, Mr. Sitko served as Managing Director, Strategic Finance, at RTW Investments, LP, a global, full life-cycle investment firm in the biopharmaceutical and medical technology sectors from November 2019 to January 2023 where he led the royalty monetization, structured finance and alternatives efforts of the firm. He also served as a member of the Board of such firm’s Irish collective asset-management vehicle (ICAV), RTW Investments ICAV. During that same time, he was Chief Financial Officer of Ji Xing Pharmaceuticals Limited, a Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company, incubated by RTW Investments, LP with responsibilities involving company formation, scaling operations, fundraising, and in-licensing of biotech assets.
From March 2015 to November 2019, Mr. Sitko served as Vice President, Finance, Operations and Corporate Development of DNAnexus, Inc., a genetic data management company with responsibilities involving restructuring and recapitalization, fundraising, finance and operations, strategic planning and industry partnerships. Mr. Sitko also served as a Director at MTS Health Partners, an investment bank, from October 2008 to March 2015, where he advised on royalty monetization, financing, restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions within the biopharmaceutical and healthcare services sectors.
Mr. Sitko received a B.A. in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
